


SongxStory

by clightlee



Category: Star Stable
Genre: F/F, SSO Wild West AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-30
Updated: 2018-09-30
Packaged: 2019-07-20 23:23:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16147724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clightlee/pseuds/clightlee
Summary: Lisa enlists Louisa's help to help a horse in trouble.





	SongxStory

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Burgie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/gifts).



> Happy late birthday Burgie!!! 
> 
> The song Lisa sings is called "Louisa," and it's by Lord Huron. I always think of Lisa x Louisa when I hear it not only because of the title but also because it features in "Freeheld," which is a movie about Ellen Page and Julianne Moore being in love. Also cancer and the justice system. It's not a happy movie but it is a very strong wlw movie and Louisa is a happy song!

Louisa was basking on the edge of waking, relishing the sunlight slanting through her window and its warmth. The mornings were crisp nowadays, with frost not far away. She was dreaming of the mountains turning gold, the arroyos filling with red leaves when her doorknob rattled. _Oh no._

 

“Louisa!” she recognized Eden’s voice hissing at her from outside.

 

“Whu??” Louisa kicked off her covers, wondering what Eden needed this early. On second thought, it was cold; she robed herself in a blanket and opened the door a crack, squinting.

 

“Quick, I can’t be seen,” Eden whispered, smooshing her face past the door. “ _She’s_ here looking for you!”

 

“Who?”

 

Eden’s eyes widened meaningfully. “ _Her._ And she’s looking for _you._ Look alive!” Eden melted away into the dappled sunlight, leaving Louisa to frantically scramble for pants and a shirt. She was kicking into her last boot when a less furtive knock sounded at her door.

 

“Louisa?” The voice was unmistakable, the most musical sound Louisa had ever heard. She bit down hard on her lower lip to keep a silly smile from winning its way across her face as she opened the door.

 

Dr. Lisa Peterson, all glowing red hair and luminous eyes, was there, at the Moorland ranch, on her doorstep, saying her name. Louisa briefly wondered if she was dreaming. Thankfully, dream or no, she had the wherewithal to manage “Good morning, Doc.”

 

Lisa broke into a smile, despite her furrowed brow. “Hey Louisa. I need your help. Can you spare a few hours?”

 

 _How about the rest of my life?_ “Absolutely. Though I can’t imagine what you need my help with.” Last time she’d been this close to Lisa, the good doctor was patching up her injured arm. She’d been the picture of efficiency, a charming and knowledgeable superwoman. As far as Louisa had observed, there was pretty much nothing Lisa couldn’t accomplish.

 

“Someone came into town with news of an injured mustang out past the Sunfield place,” Lisa explained. “They heard it crying in the night- imagine! A horse in such pain that it couldn’t keep quiet.”

 

“That’s not typical prey animal behaviour,” offered Louisa.

 

“So this cowboy that heard it told the vet, who flat-out refused to go see it- wild horses don’t pay, you know,” Lisa said, obviously disgusted. “I’m no vet, but I’m the next best thing.”

 

“And I’m no vet, either,” Louisa pointed out. “Or a doctor.”

 

“I need a wrangler,” Lisa said hopefully. “Don’t you find horses out in the bush for a living?”

 

Louisa gulped and nodded. She said a prayer to Aideen that whatever she and her crush would find wouldn’t be too much for their skills to mend. 

 

 

The trail winding its way from Moorland to Sunfield land was too narrow to ride two abreast- _abreast! Who brought that word into general use anyway?_  thought Louisa, stifling a blush and trying hard to concentrate on the trail ahead of her, not on Lisa’s eyes watching her a horse’s length behind.

 

“I liked your story at Jack’s the other night,” Lisa piped up, breaking the morning’s silence.

 

“Oh! I… didn’t see you there,” Louisa half-lied. It was true that when she stood up to tell a story she’d been working on for the amusement of the assembled barflies, an old Jorvegian tale of wild Pandorian horses, she hadn’t been able to see Lisa. The tunnel-vision of anxiety spiralled out in front of her, until all she could see was the clock on the wall opposite. But she’d been acutely aware that Lisa was there, sitting quietly at the bar with a glass of sarsaparilla and a medical journal, hanging back from the general merriment of story night. Though she’d been out of sight, Louisa had told her story as if she were telling Lisa personally. The funny asides, the references to other myths- those were something the quick-witted Texan would understand. Though she took her bow to gales of applause, Louisa had pricked up her ears for one set of clapping hands in particular. "It was just a story."

 

“I’d love to go to Old Jorvick someday, and see if the native horses really do change color when they’re out beyond civilization,” Lisa continued. “You brought them to life so well! I wish I had a gift like that- I can’t put anything longer than three verses and a refrain together!”

 

“You should sing for us sometime,” Louisa responded evenly. _Sing for me._

 

Now Lisa was blushing, clearly reading between the lines. She was still pretty new in town, still establishing her reputation as a skilled physician despite her youth and roots outside New Jorvik. She hadn’t felt brave enough to sing in front of the crowd at Jack’s yet, but if it was just to the sweet, freckled cowgirl that had wound up in her surgery the other day…

 

“Actually, I’ve been working on a song-”

 

A sharp whinny, laced with pain, broke the morning air, and both riders urged their horses into a canter towards the noise. They clattered over an outcropping of basalt to discover a slender, sable-colored mustang lying in the golden autumn grass.

 

Louisa leapt to the ground and took a knee a safe distance from the wounded horse. She put out a hand to seize Lisa’s hand before the doctor could race straight to its side.

 

“She could panic if we move too quickly, or if we act like predators,” Louisa reminded her. Lisa nodded, abashed.

 

“Sorry, it’s been a long time since I’ve gotten to spend so much time around horses,” Lisa said apologetically.

 

Louisa made a mental note to ask Lisa more about that later, and settled to the task at hand. “Let Starshine and Goldie approach first, without us,” she whispered. Lisa nodded wordlessly and placed Starshine’s split reins over the saddlehorn. The horses ambled closer to the downed mustang, nostrils fluttering hello and ears pricked forward. The dark horse’s eyes stopped rolling white and its labored breathing calmed somewhat.

 

“I’ll approach from where she can see me,” Louisa said in hushed tones. She slowly circled around until she was in the mare’s line of sight and, fists closed to hide her claw-like fingers, inched closer. “Hey, girl, we’re here to help you,” she crooned.

 

The mare’s ears swivelled to take in her every movement, but she could only raise her head so far.

 

Louisa spotted the problem as she crept nearer; a rope was knotted around one of the mare’s back hooves, clearly a lasso meant to entrap her. She’d managed to elude her pursuers, but the trailing end of the rope had wedged itself into a crack in the rocky outcropping, stopping her short. She’d exhausted and likely injured herself trying to pull free.

 

Lisa had joined her, and nodded to her, seeing the problem. “We should feel her legs for heat and swelling,” Lisa said solemnly.

 

Louisa tried to take a step closer, but the mare arched her neck and tried to scramble back. Starshine and Goldmist tossed their heads, the wild mare’s anxiety proving infectious.

 

“Lisa! Sing something,” Louisa hissed.

 

“Sing _what?_ ” Lisa asked, equally panicked.

 

“You said you were working on something,” Louisa murmured, trying to be helpful.

 

"It's just a song!"

 

Louisa cast her a pleading look. Lisa pressed her lips together, then relented. She took a deep breath, then began singing in an undertone. “ _Don’t wanna die, just wanna wander the world with you, no one else, for the rest of my days on this earth…_ ”

 

The mare laid her head back down. Louisa motioned them forward. As soon as Lisa stopped singing, the mare started up again, so the singing continued:

 

“ _Louisa, Louisa…_ ”

 

 _Holy shit!_ Both girls were blushing furiously, hearts in their throats, as they reached the mare’s side. Louisa knelt at her feet and began to gently feel her hocks while Lisa held the mare’s head, humming a melody.

 

Louisa found that the hide was chafed above the mare’s hooves, but she’d been incredibly lucky- no swelling, no undue tenderness, and no broken skin.

 

“ _I feel alive when I’m with you, baby, so tell me that I won’t ever be lonely again…_ ”

 

Louisa met Lisa’s eyes and cast her gaze down to the buck knife she wore at her hip. Lisa nodded, face burning, stroking the mare’s nose and singing a bit louder to distract her from the flash of steel as Louisa cleanly severed the knot keeping the mare tethered.

 

Both girls scrambled backwards as the mare rose, shaking herself as if to rid herself of a pesky fly. They sat back on their heels as the mare tossed her head once and then broke into a run, headed for hills just turning red-gold in the rising sun.

 

They sat silent for a moment, listening to the hoofbeats draw away.

 

“Guess she didn’t need a vet after all. Or a doctor,” Lisa said weakly.

 

“Was that song about…?”

 

“Yes.”

 

Something would have happened after that- a kiss, more than a kiss- had not the black shape surging away from them suddenly burst into a blaze of glory. The horse that kept on running away from the explosion of light was black, too, but her mane and tail streamed blood-red, unmistakable in the morning light. As she danced over a skree of shale, Lisa and Louisa could see that her hooves had turned the same deep red.

 

“Did she just…?”

 

“Yes.” Lisa paused a moment. “It looks like your story wasn’t just a story.”

 

“Pandorian energy, here in New Jorvik?” Louisa considered. “I suppose I’m not surprised.” She collected her courage for a second more, then added, “And it looks like your song wasn’t _just_ a song.”

 

Lisa raised her eyebrows, a smile dawning across her face. “So you liked it?”

 

“I want to hear it all,” Louisa managed over the pounding of her heart.

 

And Lisa sang it to her, right then and there, kneeling in the bunchgrass as the earth warmed and their hearts recognized each other at last.


End file.
